Sillery

“ Among more recent appreciation of the merits of Sillery sec may be mentioned the Cossacks, who pillaged the district in 1814, and who, not being able to carry off all the wine from the cellar of the Count de Valence at Sillery, stove in some thirty pièces of the best, and set the place afloat. [403]
The drive from Reims to Sillery has nothing attractive about it. A long, straight, level road bordered by trees intersects a broad tract of open country, skirted on the right by the Petite Montagne of Reims, with antiquated villages nestled among the dense woodland. ”

“ In attempting a sketch of the Sillery of ancient days, we cannot follow a truer nor pleasanter guide than the old historian of Canada in the interesting notes he published on this locality in 1855, after having minutely examined every inch of ground. "A year after their arrival at Quebec," says Abbé Ferland, "in August, 1640, the Hospitalières nuns, desirous of being closer to the Sillery mission, where they were having their convent built according to the wishes of the Duchess D'Aiguillon, left Quebec and located themselves in the house of M. de Puiseaux. ”

“ Would you like a few extracts from this curious old Sillery novel? Bella Fermor, one of Emily Montague's familiars, and a most ingrained coquette, thus writes from Sillery in favour of a military protégé on the 16th September, 1766, to the "divine" Emily, who had just been packed oft to Montreal to recover from a love fit. "Sir George is handsome as an Adonis ... you allow him to be of an amiable character; he is rich, young, well-born, and he loves you..." ”

“ While Paul Sillery, buried in the corner of a carriage, allowed himself to be almost carried away by jealousy of his friend, Amedee, detained by the charm of this beautiful day which is drawing to a close, walks with slow, lingering steps under the lindens on the terrace.
The leaves are falling around him!
A very slight breeze is rising, the blue sky is fading a little below; in the nearest Paris suburb the windows are shining in the oblique rays of the setting sun. It will soon be night, and upon this carpet of dead leaves, which crackle under the poet’s tread, other leaves will fall. ”

“ Longitude at that time was reckoned from the island of Ferro, one of the Canaries. Proceeding from west to east, the 290° would pass through Hudson's Bay, as may be seen by consulting any early French map. Vide Bellin's Carte du Globe Terrestre, 1764.
34. Nicholas Brulart de Sillery, who was born at Sillery, in France, in 1544, and died in the same place in 1624. He rendered signal service to Henry IV. Among other public acts he negotiated the peace of Vervins between France and Spain in 1598. He was appointed grand chancellor of France in 1607. ”

“ The three girls were up almost by daylight in the morning, watching the brightening sunshine flush the red rock of Cap Rouge, and then the gradual unfolding of the river panoramas as they passed headland after headland, each opening a fair, new vista beyond. Soon a glittering church steeple gleamed out from the southern shore, rising protectingly over white villages nestling at their feet. Curving recesses of the wooded bank, outlined by one long, picturesque French village street, followed the bend of the shore to the left. “That is Sillery,” said Kate, in reply to May’s eager enquiries. ”

“ To this eminent lawyer and statesman was born a patriarchal family of sons and daughters. The youngest of his sons, Noël Brulart de Sillery, [169] having brilliantly completed his studies at Paris in the classics, entered, at the age of 18, the military order of the Knights of Malta, and resided twelve years in that island as a knight; his martial bearing and ability, modesty, and uniform good conduct soon paved the way for him to the highest dignities in this celebrated Order. Soon the Grand Master appointed him "Commandeur de Troyes"; this preferment yielded him 40,000 livres per annum. ”

“ If I do not deceive myself, he has been sent by the nobility of Champagne.”
“Good, my boy, good!”
“But it is the man,” continued I, “that I do not know.”
“Well, I will tell you all about the man. We begin to know names, as well as men. Charles Alexis Brulart is a marquis, like Lafayette, but having, like him, renounced his title, on the night of the 4th of August, he calls himself Sillery, as I call myself Duplay. As to his courage, it cannot be doubted. At twenty years of age, he assisted in the campaign of the Indies, and gained his rank at the point of the sword.” ”

“ Savigny, feeling his resolution and his strength failing him, made a vow to God, and a [86] little after, reaching down with his feet, he felt the bottom, and stepping out of the water, he reached Sillery half dead. ”

“ At her left, the city sloped down to Saint Roch and the Charles River beyond, and beyond that again was the long white village of Beauport straggling along the bluff above the river. At her right, quarter of a mile beyond the Citadel, were the ruined hillocks of the old French fortifications; and, on the opposite shore, the town of Lévis was crested with its trio of forts and dotted with tapering spires of gray. From one of the piers below, a little steamer was swinging out into midstream and heading towards the point where Sillery church overlooks the valley ”

“ Il [Nicolet] sembarqua à Quebec sur les sept heures du soir, dans la chalouppe de Monsieur de Sauigny, qui tiroit vers les Trois Riuieres; ils n'estoient pas encor arriuez à Sillery, qu'vn coup de vent de Nord Est, qui auoit excité vne horrible tempeste sur la grande riuiere, remplit la chalouppe d'eau et la coula à fond, apres luy auoir fait faire deux ou trois tours dans l'eau. Ceux qui estoient dedans n'allerent pas incontinent à fond, ils s'attacherent quelque temps à la challouppe. ”

“ You will advance up the hill to the storm of the battery—at the word ‘halt,’ you will deliver your fire at the port-lights of the artillerymen, and immediately carry the guns at the point of the bayonet.—Support arms—double quick—march!” Machinery could not have moved with more compactness than that gallant regiment followed the fearless stride of its leader. Supported by the Twenty-third, the dark mass moved up the hill like one body,—the lurid light glittering and flickering on their bayonets, as the combined fire of the enemy’s artillery and infantry opened murderously upon them. ”

“ By the continued glare of our discharges, we could see dense dark masses of men, moving in columns to three separate points of attack upon our works. Our artillery and musketry poured on them as they advanced a continual stream of fire, rolling and glancing from angles, bastions, and redoubts. Repulsed—they were re-formed by their officers, and brought again to the charge, to be again repulsed. At such times, hours fly like minutes. A life appears concentrated to a moment. ”

“ The measured tread of disciplined troops became apparent. Every sense was stretched to the utmost in expectancy—every eye endeavoured to fathom the darkness in front, when, from Towson’s battery, that towards the river, glanced a [116] volley of musquetry, and in another instant, the whole line of the works, bastion, redoubt, and rampart, streamed forth one living sheet of flame. Two eighteens, mounted where we stand, were filled to the muzzle with grape, cannister, and bags of musket-bullets—imagine their havoc. The enemy came on with loud shouts and undaunted bravery. ”

“ Our troops had levelled their pieces and the artillery was prepared,—the order to fire was given. Most awful was its effect. The lines closed in part before the enemy was broken. He then retired precipitately, the American army following him. The field was covered with the slain, but not an enemy capable of marching was to be seen. We dressed our men upon the ground we occupied. Gen. Brown was not disposed to leave it in the dark, knowing it was the best in the neigbourhood. ”

“ The stream being deep, and the bottom rugged, he advanced slowly, the soldiers, some of them, holding on by his stirrup-leathers,—and one by one they discharged their rifles at him, each man sure of knocking him over, and, having re-loaded, eight or nine of them, emptied their guns at him a second time, yet strange to relate, neither horse nor rider received a single ball. ”

“ I called him nearer, and pressing his musket down over my holsters, made him prisoner. “What have I done, sir,” said the astonished man, “what have I done?” and to convince British officers, as he supposed, of his loyalty, exclaimed, “Hurrah for the King, and damn the Yankees.” As he was marched to the rear, the poor fellow was cut down by a grape shot. In another part of the field, an American aid pulled up suddenly on a body of men under full march. In reply to his demand, “What regiment is that?” ”

“ The two officers, in full view of the watchers, were shot down as they stood, the rifle muzzles touching their backs. The Germans round the trench edge tossed bombs down on the men penned below. Before the spurting smoke came billowing up out of the trench, Teddy Silsey leaped to his feet with a scream, and flung himself scrambling up the trench wall. But the sergeant, with a gust of bitter oaths, gripped and held him. “Get to it there,” he snarled savagely at the men about the gun. “D’you want a better target?” The gun muzzle twitched and steadied and ripped out a stream of bullets. ”

“ The ambition of many of the officers was broken down, and they retired in disgust.”
Note to Fort Erie.—The Dying Soldier.—“On the day preceding the night attack,” said the Major, “while the enemy were throwing an incessant discharge of shot and shells into our works, I observed at a little distance beyond me a group of people collected on the banquette of the rampart; I approached and found that one of the militia had been mortally wounded by a cannot shot, and that, supported by his comrades, he was dictating with his dying breath his last words to his family. ”

“ The firing continued with unabated fury. The enemy, repulsed with great loss in every attack, was unsuccessful on every point save that bastion, the possession of which they still retained—when I heard a groaning roll and shake of the earth, and instantly the bastion, bodies of men, timber, guns, earth and stones, were blown up in the air like a volcano, [118] making every thing in the glare as clear as noon-day. A descending timber dashed one of my artillerymen to pieces within a foot of my shoulder. Profound darkness and silence followed. ”

“ The islands with their military works lay calm and motionless upon the waters—the grim artillery, like sleeping tigers crouched upon the ramparts and the castle’s walls—but the glistening of the sentry’s polished musket, and the sudden clamorous roll of drums showed me, that—not there was death. ”

“ I hear the sound of bugles—the clamorous roll of drums, the groaning jar and creak of heavy-wheeled artillery. Spread along the lines, covered with sharp abattis and water moat, I see the impatient Gaul, with savage ally in ambushment, await their coming—they advance with desperate [137] valour,—they ford the ditch, they hew the sharpened trees with axes. In vain—the balls like hail, from unseen foes murderously destroy them—their leader falls—hark! the bugle with melancholy wail sounds their retreat. ”

“ Writing from the trenches on the 29th, Colonel Silliman says: "Our enemy have encamped in plain sight of our camp at the distance of about a mile and a half. We have had no general engagement yet, but no day passes without some smart and hot skirmishes between different parties, in which the success is sometimes one way and sometimes another. We are in constant expectation of a general battle; no one can be here long without getting pretty well acquainted with the whistling of cannon and musket shot." ”

“ I was working at one of the for’ard guns, and as after she was loaded, the captain of the piece stood waiting with the trigger lanyard in his finger, ready to pull, one of the officers calls out, ‘I say, sir, why don’t you fire?’ ‘I want to make her tell, sir,’ says the gunner,—‘I am waiting for their flash,—there it is’—and as he pulled trigger, a cannon shot came through the port, and dashed him to pieces between us, covering me and the officer all over with his brains. ”

“ We were so mingled, said the Major, and so great the confusion in the darkness, that as I was sitting with a group of officers in the earlier part of the night, on horseback, a British soldier came up to us, and recovering his musket, under the supposition that he was addressing one of his own officers, said, “Colonel Gordon will be much obliged, sir, if you will march up the three hundred men in the road to his assistance immediately, as he is very hard pressed.” ”

“ The horrified soldiers were deserting, running away from the avalanche sweeping upon them.
A few of the guns were still pumping a leaden stream into the ranks of the rebels, now but a hundred feet away, firing their rifles as they came to keep up their fleeting courage.
The Colt guns were stilled, the last soldier had deserted; the Americans were alone in the trench except for the dead and those too badly wounded to escape from the terrifying sound of the advancing army.
The silence of their enemy behind the intrenchments on La Mesa sent a thrill of terror through the advancing hundreds. ”

“ There is nothing more true, than that in war as in love, much depends upon accident, and an alarm is frequently conveyed and a victory won, by circumstances [99] entirely the act of chance. As a case in point. In the retreat of the British after the battle of Monks’ Corner, Lt. Col. Stuart ordered all the arms belonging to the dead and wounded to be collected, and when the retreating enemy had marched on, they were set fire to by the rear guard. As many of the muskets were loaded, an irregular discharge followed, resembling the desultory fire which usually precedes a battle. ”